Route profile
EWR→PHX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to Phoenix, 2,133 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 46% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,037 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
EWR → PHX arrives on time 80.0% of the time; the return trip, PHX → EWR, arrives on time 77.3% of the time, a 2.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
EWR → PHX spends 30.5 minutes on the ground on a 2,133-mile trip: 24.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at EWR and 6.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where EWR to PHX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
EWR to PHX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 80.2% arrive on time, 11.9 points ahead of the 68.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.4 points.
EWR to PHX struggles most at 8 PM: 62.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.2 points behind the 68.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
EWR to PHX holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 80.8% on time to their 77.7%, a 3.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.6 points.
March is kinder to EWR to PHX than to routes of similar length: 85.6% on time against 79.0%, 6.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
In November, EWR to PHX runs 3.1 points below routes of similar length, 80.8% on time to 83.9%.
EWR to PHX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 80.2% | routes of similar length | 68.3% | +11.9 pts | 373 here, 43,571 there |
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 62.9% | routes of similar length | 68.1% | −5.2 pts | 612 here, 28,955 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 80.8% | routes of similar length | 77.7% | +3.1 pts | 1,149 here, 152,797 there |
| Month: March | 85.6% | routes of similar length | 79.0% | +6.6 pts | 673 here, 83,096 there |
| Month: November | 80.8% | routes of similar length | 83.9% | −3.1 pts | 699 here, 79,836 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 2,133 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why EWR → PHX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
EWR → PHX cancelled 122 of 8,037 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 66. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 68.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 96 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 122 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
84 cancellations, 68.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
22 cancellations, 18.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
15 cancellations, 12.3% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
1 cancellation, 0.8% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
122 coded cancellations were recorded on EWR → PHX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
45 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 8,037 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHX after arriving from EWR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.9% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.52% of the time and diverts 0.21% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,898 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,037 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
EWR → PHX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.2% of the time, against 69.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.4% on time from 1,543 flights
- 7 AM: 84.9% on time from 614 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 80.8% on time from 232 flights
- 10 AM: 78.9% on time from 1,214 flights
- 11 AM: 86.4% on time from 450 flights
- 12 PM: 87.7% on time from 182 flights
- 1 PM: 78.4% on time from 369 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 76.0% on time from 154 flights
- 4 PM: 75.5% on time from 901 flights
- 5 PM: 76.2% on time from 911 flights
- 6 PM: 72.2% on time from 191 flights
- 7 PM: 80.2% on time from 388 flights
- 8 PM: 62.9% on time from 629 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why EWR → PHX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for EWR → PHX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on EWR → PHX, at 44.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 69.9%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 4,506 | 80.4% | 1.58% | -11 min | 7.9% |
| American Airlines | 3,179 | 79.3% | 1.35% | -9 min | 7.7% |
| Spirit Airlines | 352 | 81.4% | 2.27% | -8 min | 8.1% |
United Airlines flew 56.1% of the 8,037 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 2.1 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1282 American Airlines | 7:15 AM | 615 | 86.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.2%
- Feb: 82.8%
- Mar: 85.6%
- Apr: 81.5%
- May: 75.2%
- Jun: 75.2%
- Jul: 69.0%
- Aug: 79.5%
- Sep: 85.1%
- Oct: 81.6%
- Nov: 80.8%
- Dec: 82.4%
July is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 16.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 60.9% from 185 flights
- August 2023: 84.0% from 201 flights
- September 2023: 86.1% from 236 flights
- October 2023: 85.7% from 245 flights
- November 2023: 90.6% from 254 flights
- December 2023: 89.9% from 277 flights
- January 2024: 84.6% from 257 flights
- February 2024: 85.6% from 232 flights
- March 2024: 82.1% from 248 flights
- April 2024: 79.0% from 228 flights
- May 2024: 76.7% from 229 flights
- June 2024: 73.2% from 223 flights
- July 2024: 64.2% from 225 flights
- August 2024: 69.2% from 204 flights
- September 2024: 87.4% from 198 flights
- October 2024: 89.3% from 216 flights
- November 2024: 78.5% from 229 flights
- December 2024: 79.1% from 220 flights
- January 2025: 82.2% from 219 flights
- February 2025: 79.9% from 196 flights
- March 2025: 87.5% from 216 flights
- April 2025: 77.3% from 209 flights
- May 2025: 61.9% from 200 flights
- June 2025: 76.4% from 195 flights
- July 2025: 75.2% from 217 flights
- August 2025: 85.1% from 201 flights
- September 2025: 81.4% from 188 flights
- October 2025: 68.6% from 207 flights
- November 2025: 71.9% from 224 flights
- December 2025: 76.7% from 235 flights
- January 2026: 82.6% from 203 flights
- February 2026: 82.2% from 182 flights
- March 2026: 87.7% from 215 flights
- April 2026: 88.3% from 206 flights
- May 2026: 86.1% from 210 flights
- June 2026: 76.1% from 201 flights
- July 2026: 75.0% from 206 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.1% against 78.8% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,037 EWR → PHX flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed